Earth Day Mayne Island

April 22, 2010April 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 17 Comments

It is 6:00 am when I arrive at Bennett Bay and head down the trail towards the rising sun in the Gulf Island National Park Reserve on Mayne Island, British Columbia Canada. No other human is here yet. Today is Earth Day. I am celebrating by taking my camera and going for a walk at dawn. If you are a regular reader this will be a familiar stroll. We have been here together before…

Morning song birds, honking Canada geese, cries of eagles, the bark of a seal, and seagulls intersperse between a gentle wind coming off Georgia Strait into the firs, arbutus, gary oaks. Feeling the soft ground through my shoes I notice the dampness starting to seep under my sweatshirt searching for the places open around the edges of my turtleneck. I spy a lady slipper but it is too dark under the trees to share her with you. Walking purposefully I am soon at Campbell point.

Low cloud over the Mainland.

Vancouver hidden in cloud

Georgeson Island begins to warm.

Seagulls feast on a starfish breakfast.

Sun on the shore catches my attention.

I sit for a while feeling the rough sandstone cold beneath me as I watch the waves, smell the sea, and hear the sounds of earth waking to another day. Then it is time to head back through the gary oaks.

Between the arbutus.

And past the big firs.

The morning light through the trees is filled with mystery.

Close to the entrance of the park there is a swing reminding me that humans are part of Earth and it is this relationship between the two which leads us to celebrate Earth Day.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

I hug myself. I spin once slowly with arms outstretched… another day – yes another glorious day I get to see dawn in her slip before she has a chance to dress for the sun’s rising. Lucky me!

Sprout Question: Does Earth Day play any part in your creativity?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Randomness – a blogger’s truth

April 13, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

Feeling an unbending resistance through every joint in my body I slowly wake. What time is it? Hum, just before 7:00 am. I did sleep in. The slate tiles are warm in the middle of our kitchen. Routine sees me through the making of stovetop coffee with a couple of homemade cookies that I promise to follow with fruit, yogurt and hemp seeds in awhile.

I’ve been randomly thinking about Kathy’s post “The Secret Lives of Bloggers” since she put it out on April 9^th. I haven’t responded. I just keep thinking. I am thinking as I check to make sure the heat is on in the studio building as I am coaching this afternoon. I am thinking as I watch a beautiful Varied Thrush in the garden, and as I hear the rooster crow and the sheep asking for breakfast at the farm in the valley. I am still thinking as I curl into our very old Morrison chair and snag the travel section of Saturday’s Globe and Mail from the coffee table.

Bonny Reichert is telling me how to be “at home in Paris.” I read about dark French coffee as I sip a medium roast, single origin, organic, fair trade, artisan, Ethiopia Sidamo Co-Op Shanta Golba, from our local Salt Spring Coffee (we take our coffee seriously on the west coast of Canada). At that moment it tastes very dark – and very French. My two cookies made with half whole wheat flour, half the sugar (all brown) and a quarter of the chocolate chips with an added cup of chopped walnuts and pecans transform into Laduree Bonaparter macaroons and elegant tiny cakes that I have ordered decisively (because sweets are serious business in Paris – and I had already heard this before reading Bonny Reichert’s article). I am no longer sitting quietly in our strawbale, timberframe home cradled by various shades of spring verte and grande fir trees. Saint-Germain is bustling. Raspail farmers market smells soak past my nose into my sensitive taste buds.

I wonder again about Kathy’s post and how much we need to know about each other to share an experience. In fact, how much do we really know about someone even if we live with them daily? How well do we really know ourselves? Take for instance Laurie’s recent “University of Life” posts. Attempting to know ourselves seems to me to be one of the greatest adventures of living…

So my dear friend and blogging colleague Kathy, at “Lake Superior Spirit,” what you share is just right and it is enough. I believe we only ever know fragments of others and a few more fragments about ourselves – even if it is our sole intention for each day we live. Yet those moments that slice our energy in pure connection to self, to another, or to a place; in this we know all we need to know. And Kathy, your blog does this with the expertise of a French chef choosing the day’s cuisine needs from local markets.

Sprout Question: How well do you know your creative self?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

rocks and mussels

April 12, 2010April 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 20 Comments

"rocks and mussels" oil painting by Terrill Welch

11X14 by 1.5 inches water miscible oil painting.

View full resolution image here.

“rocks and mussels” is inspired by a piece of remote the beach at Point No Point on south western Vancouver Island. It is a rugged area close to the end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and open sea. The rocks are of mixed texture and form. Some are large hard slate black stones rubbed smoothed from the surf and others are smaller, rounded and warm ochre and cream in colour. Seaweed seems to drape themselves over either. Though the when you look closely mussels appear to like the darker rocks. But since they are sometimes clustered together it is often hard to tell.

I have been coming to this area for over twenty years, sometimes for lunch and a stroll through the trails and other times to stay for a few days in one of the cabins. The last time I was there was in December 2009 for our honeymoon.

I had set a challenge when painting this piece to be able to paint the darker seaweed on top of the lighter rocks. However when I look closely, the light was the dark seaweed just at the crest of the rocks. Which made much more sense to me but the painting was still very challenging. I wanted us to feel like we were the sea about to wash over the mussels, the rocks and the seaweed. I also came to understand that the rocks are often washed away from the bottom quicker than the top as the sea pushes its way over the sand and withdraws back into itself. This leaves the stones with overhangs where there is no sand and the shadows seep in.

At some point this painting took on a life of its own and became separate from my reference images and slide down a path that was more about remembering how it felt, the smell of seaweed, the salt air, and the roar of the surf on distant rocks with the sun on my back lifting the mist off the trees on the bank above me.

Sprout Question: Have you ever discovered something different than what you thought you knew while creating?

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

More Painting

April 8, 2010April 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 23 Comments

Power outage lends itself to another day painting

We had another power outage (due to winds knocking over a huge arbutus tree on Village Bay road at 1:40 am). I awake at 7:00 am. The power is still out. I decide to see if I can find a coffee before doing anything else. Ah yes! The bakery is serving coffee using generator power. Armed with to-go thermos cups filled with black gold, I return home and prepare our usual fruit, yogurt and grain cereal for breakfast. With few alternatives, I settle on my favourite activity of the moment – painting.

The wild underpainting had dried on my 18X24 by 2 inch canvas.

I go to work. At one o’clock this afternoon the power comes on again and I am ready to take a break and share the progress with you.

There is more to do but it is a good start.

Sprout Question: What is your creative activity of choice when the power goes out?

Note: My apologies for being late with today’s post but you will have to take it up with the wind and the arbutus tree… they have let me know they are taking full responsibility for the delay.

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Sacred Rock

April 6, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 31 Comments

Did you have a nice holiday? Mine turned out very different from planned as a lengthy wind storm came up Thursday night and didn’t end until Friday evening. It took the power out for a day and a half which meant I didn’t go to Vancouver. Instead, I stayed on Mayne Island, cooked on the wood cook stove outside and kept a fire going in the outdoor fireplace for extra warmth.

Though I was terribly disappointed not to see my grandson other good things happened instead. My partner’s daughter came for overnight and we had an awesome visit and on Monday I worked on my paintings and went down to the beach to visit a sacred rock.

How do I know it is a sacred rock? Well I don’t really. It just captured my imagination and every so often I go and visit and see it if is still there. The rock is likely a little less than three feet wide and maybe two feet high. It doesn’t look like any other neighbouring rocks but is sandstone and possibly something else. So let’s have a closer look together shall we?

Isn’t it a beauty? So solid. So many interesting markings.

And the surface… what a design.

Close to the bottom the barnacles and little hats attach themselves.

Now I trust you can see why every so often I come down and have a visit sitting beside this sacred rock, admiring its beauty and looking out to sea. We have become good friends over the three years I have lived on Mayne Island.

I know that someday the sea will have battered drift wood against it long enough to wear it away. Or someone will have found an ingenious way of moving it to their country garden. But for now, it is a sacred rock on a beach in the southern gulf islands off the west coast of Canada.

Sprout Question: Has a place or thing ever inspired your imagination?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Early Easter

April 1, 2010April 1, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 27 Comments

Looking at that big sky I am reminded that today is the last Creative Potager post until the morning of Tuesday April 6, 2010. Early Happy Easter to you as we take one last quiet stroll before departing to family and friends.

Bull kelp rests where it was thrown during a high tide, its long tail reaching back into the sea. Bull kelp has been the inspiration for many a child who spies it on the shore. It is an annual and can grow 80 feet long in one season with leaves up to 10 feet long. They grow together creating an underwater forest.

Spring has arrived to the shoreline…

View and purchase full resolution image here.

Here is my personal favourite view looking down on the grape hyacinths, iris stocks and snapdragons growing next to the shore.

But mostly I want to share with you one of my favourite arbutus tree….

View and purchase full resolution image here.

If you look way across the Straight of Georgia that is where Vancouver, B.C. is, just below the cloud covered mountains. On Saturday afternoon, I will be waving back to you from there.

Sprout Question: How do holidays fit with your creativity?

All the best of the Easter holiday weekend to you.

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

The Question of Who

March 26, 2010March 28, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 24 Comments

The sea snatches at sandstone mounds as gulls plead their case with the winds – which am I, sea, sandstone, gull or wind?

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Early morning – Flexible and Flowing… one of 64 cards drawn for today.

I can say more but this feels just right.

Sprout Question: Does the question of who come up in your creativity?

Have a wonderful weekend.

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

What are you waiting for?

March 15, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

Brave the unknown…
Quick whistle of shore birds…. longer notes of an eagle in solo flight over head… waves cresting – moment by moment…

Rush, swish, rise and fall – connecting in a dance – moment by moment

Crisp dusk moves swiftly, heading off the last of today’s sun – moment by moment.

Cedars lose themselves in shadow yet remain unyielding in their whispered fragrance – moment by moment.

Last light is often the light most cherished. May darkness wrap you in a warm blanket of possibility,

as moonlight serenades the sea…

I have come to trust and know that nothing stays the same. We are all in our physical existence for but a split second of eternal time.

Sprout Question: What are you waiting for?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Walk by the Sea

March 12, 2010March 12, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 18 Comments

I never tire of walking trail along the sea. I hope you are not yet tired of my images from these walks. The photos today are from a walk that you won’t find on any map. The walk is only known by locals. It is on private land and permission is granted at your own risk. It is a privilege and a honour that I do not take for granted. So I am not going to tell you exactly where this is on Mayne Island. If you know, smile wisely and enjoy the photo essay along with everyone else.

Come with me….

The trail is rugged in places. I often stop to be able to look up from placing my feet carefully between tree roots and sandstone sticking up on the rough trail. In the next few years, you won’t see many photos like this one where to show the trail in the deep shadows, the sea and sky over exposed. We will all know how to do HDR... but when we look in real time we must choose what we can see at one time… so I have also chosen in this photograhy.

As I walk, a sea lion surfaces off the shore. I know it is there because when it breathes I can feel it on the back of my neck. I look. There she is. I do not try to take photos as past experience tells me, my lens won’t reach. She rolls up to the surface. Breathes. Then rolls her long sleek body over and down she goes, surfacing again many yards ahead of me. I don’t see her the next time she surfaces.

About 45 minutes later I make my way to the point.

The sandstone is warm from the sun. I sit and wonder at the beauty of its shape.

Looking over on the other side I catch a wave coming in.

And then I think I know…

High tides and winter storms have carved out such a place where I now admire its beauty.

I don’t want to go. I want to stay and be part of the sandstone and then part of the sea, then part of the sandstone… until day becomes night and night day and time has no relevance.

I do go though. I am not sure what makes me leave, but I do.

Two hours later, I am putting the key back into the ignition. I go home. I make lunch. I leave these images in my mind until last night… or rather early this morning as I was still editing at 1:00 am. Now I have savoured them long enough… I can now share them with you.

Sprout Question: If you could do only one more creative of work in your life time – what would you do?

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Baby Lambs

February 26, 2010February 26, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 48 Comments

On this early Friday morning of west coast rain, I first want to thank the many faithful readers and sprout question responders of Creative Potager. This new blog began on December 27, 2009 with “A Gown Remembered: A beginning.” Today’s submission makes 45 posts with 442 comments and 3,342 views. Thank you. Your engagement, encouragement, humour and insights are an integral part of what makes for an excellent creative potager.

I must be off to a writing group this morning. The underpainting is still drying on my oil canvas and it is Friday on the last Friday in February. I thought I would share a series of photos from my visit to Meadowmist Farm to see the sheep with their new lambs yesterday. The babies always make me laugh with their curious leaping and bouncing around.

Mama keeps an eye out as we wander around the yard looking at the babies.